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Sunday, February 28, 2016

OK, OK, so participating in the Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt along isn't enough, I have decided to ALSO do The Splendid Sampler. More 6" blocks....goodie!Debby Brown was telling us about this sew along last week when she was in Calgary teaching at the WonderFil Threaducation Centre. She showed us a couple of the blocks she has already sewn and I was hooked!I'm thinking of hosting a monthly or bi-weekly sew time, where I can get together with others and sew the blocks. We would offer help and support to one another as we work on the blocks.

Last week when Debby was here we took a drive to the mountains. No drive west is complete without a visit to Sugar Pine Quilt Company in down town Canmore. I ALWAYS spend a few minutes upstairs and pick up a few batiks. I think they have the best selection around! So, I picked up a bunch and have chosen a teal/blue/green colour scheme for this quilt. Here are some of the fabrics and I am sure I'll add more as time progresses.

The first 5 blocks are cut and ready to sew. I think I'll try to cut and store in plastic bags so that I will always be prepared and can sit down and sew with minimal prep time.

Friday, February 26, 2016

I'm well on my way to finishing some projects during 2016. Although I have listed a few projects I WANT to finish this year, I am keeping the book for just FINISHED projects.

So one of the quilts that I had on my list to get done from a few years ago was one I called "garden path". I quilted it, then over quilted with a heavier thread to quilt some flowers. I didn't like it at all. Then it ended up folded on the floor under my ironing board and my puppy Boots used to lie on it and keep me company while I was sewing. Boots went to camp during the summer and the quilt has been just hanging around since.

I was pinteresting one day and saw a whole bunch of posts about making foot stools. So, this quilt has become 2 lovely foot stools for my living room. This will keep us from putting our feet up on the coffee table.I used the following links as the basis for my foot stools.

I measured from the floor to the top of the couch cushion at 14". I have a 15" square ruler, so it was easy to cut the 15" squares and use the width of my sewing foot as my seam guide. I cut 6 squares for the cube. I sewed the squares together into the cube, leaving an opening along one edge. I had some bean bag pellets left over from making my granddaughter's bean bag chair in the summer.

This is where my plan fell apart! Have you ever tried pouring a very large bag of bean bag pellets into a small opening all on your own? Doesn't work very well! I've made a real mess, but I got it done.

Once I had filled the bag full enough, I hand stitched the opening closed.

A lovely sewn pouf and a practical project as well. Now to clean up the mess.

I had some of the quilt left over and instead of just pitching it, I decided to sew another pouf. This time I rotated the ruler a little bit and cut the squares on a bit of a diagonal.

Stuffing the pouf was way easier as I used up scraps from the rest of the quilt and some class stitching samples I had laying around.

I still needed more to stuff the pouf so folded and added some old towels and other scraps. One of the posts I found had suggested to fill the gaps with fibre fill. Since I couldn't find any at home and I wanted to get this pouf done, I just sewed it shut. This one is a bit softer and will make a really nice seat for a little one.

All that's left to do is print a picture or two and record these in my FINISH 2016 book.

AND I learned so much!I had the extreme privilege of hosting Debby Brown at my house and at the WonderFil Threaducation Centre this week. Debby is a very experienced and talented Quilter and Teacher. She taught classes for 4 days and presented an evening trunk show. I took a few pictures and lots of notes. I now need to quilt, quilt and quilt.

Here are some pictures of Debby and the other lucky students in her classes.

Diamonds class

Not an Artist Class

Micro stitching

Debby Showing us how she does it.

We had a full house for her trunk show on Wednesday evening.

Loved her stories

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We had a power failure on Thursday morning during our Feathers class. This didn't stop Debby from teaching.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Over 22 years ago very good friends brought home a beautiful little almost 2 year old daughter. To commemorate the special occasion, I made a quilt for Marylyn.Yesterday, I found this now 24 year old snuggled under a very faded, tattered and well loved quilt. I don't have a picture of the quilt when it was first finished, but I do have some shots of it now.

My rule is that if I make a quilt for you and you use it and abuse it....I'll gladly make you another one. I've already made Marylyn a 2nd quilt and that one stays on her bed.